Nokia LCD, nunchuck, and MSP430 join forces

[JB’s] driving a Nokia 6100 LCD using an MSP430 with input from a Wii Nunchuck. He’s using the G2211 microprocessor that came with the Launchpad, and developing his code with MSP-GCC. As you can see in the video after the break, this works but there’s some room for improvement. That’s being said, he is bumping up against the code memory limit, with just around 500 bytes left to work with. The LCD screen is SPI and currently it’s hogging the pins that are used for the hardware i2c. Since he needs an i2c bus to talk to the nunchuck he had to go with software i2c which explains part of his program memory troubles.

We’re in no way experts on this, but it seems like he could save space (and improve the input responsiveness) by rewriting his LCD drivers in order to remap the pins. Then again, it might just be better to move up to a larger MSP430. If you’ve got some advice, make sure to share it by leaving a comment.

I don’t see why you’d use a weak µC. I started with microcontrollers earlier last year and my first one was a stm32 with 72mhz, 64kb ram and 512kb flash. They’re just a few bucks and they have enough power for about anything :) (And pins ofc!)

The biggest issue with the Launchpad chips is the lack of memory. If you are comfortable with soldering TSSOP or QFP chips (its not as difficult as you might think) then get yourself some better MSP chips. Texas offers free samples for most of their gear. Just make sure you get chips with spy-bi-wire, msp430f5xxx are pretty beefy and would be a nice chip to start with.

I feel like using a weak uC is part of the fun and definitely more impressive. Personally, I get a lot of satisfaction out of squeezing every last drop of performance out of a chip. It’s nice to be able to surprise yourself. Also, employers will be happy if you can trim a few cents off the BOM by coding efficiently.